Advert Evaluation

This was an assignment, that at first had to be pitched, for an idea we had for an advert.
Advertising a confectionary item of our own selection. The option to work as a pair was
offered to us, so I took the opportunity to work alongside Josh Thomas and together we
decided on Lynx deodorant to be the product we would like to advertise. By choosing
Lynx, I and Josh know; we will enjoy making the advert and I feel the end product would
end up looking more successful because we both agree we like the product than any
other. We were aware there is the fear of crossing paths with the content shown from
other Lynx adverts in the past because our idea is a very generic Lynx advert.

After pitching, production soon followed. Production saw us going out to make the actual
advert itself. This involved both filming and editing post production. Our way of work,
was to get started very early, so that we have more time to edit and gain more and more
feedback as we go along, to get a really professional looking advert come deadline.

What Is The Advert All About?

Our advert is seen with two young male college students causing havoc in a LRC, from
kicking over bins and pulling over chairs etc. The most troublesome student then pulls
out a can of Lynx deodorant and he sprays it all over the elderly librarian character. As
soon as he had deodorant sprayed onto him, both his facial expression is repelled and
him as a character is changed to this irresistible object that all girls are attracted too. He
sees the troublesome college student dropping the can on the floor and running away,
still with a sickened facial expression. He takes the decision to pick the can up of the
floor, and starts to shake his head. During all this, we would have a cut to the girl
characters. They all walk towards the elderly librarian character being really flirty and
sexy.

The message shown is Lynx makes you attractive to the opposite sex.

After filming, editing was next. Before anything fancy like applying colour correction, I put
all the clips into the timeline and adjusted different clips to have a different speed
duration. Some were quick, and some were slow to add to that slow mo effect. This was
all done to make everything seem dynamic.

When it came to colour correction, I have tried to enhance the greens of RGB Curves.
There is a feel of being too bright, but I like the way it looks. When I applied this to every
clip, I wanted to quickly experiment to see what it would look like if no colour correction
was applied. It gave it a clean look. However, I decided to stick to the green waveforms.

The style we were aiming to achieve was chaos. Maybe that is why song Smells Like
Teen Spirit was a good choice because it mainly connects with the adverts visuals.

Screening To Our Target Audience

It was important once everything was finished to conclude, with displaying the end
product to our target audience who are teenagers. Before showing the product to them,
we made sure our screening entailed people of an age ranging from 16-30 years. I feel, if
we didnt have this particular age of people in the screening, the feedback we received
back could have been possibly not as trustworthy or even dependable than someone who
gives feedback at 12 years old. Every week, we presented either a scene or shot from the
advert and when we did that we gained the relevant feedback to take away and go out to
make it better than it originally was. Come deadline, we had put together an advert that
was almost professional that both us and our target audience liked, because it was the
help of constructive feedback through the weeks.

At the beginning, everything was all roughly put together, with no colour correction, or
anything of that nature. As well we didnt have our female cast in screening 1, however
we did have I in a girl wig experimenting; to see how certain shots will look. Straight
away we were told to go away and work on our humour and to include actual girls. We
reshot with actual girls, and it changed everything for the better of the advert come the
end.

For the final advert the feedback we received was far better than at first screening. It
came across as being very beneficial to us because now we know what we could adjust
to what we have already completed rather than detecting things which we already
understood that we required to do.

An example of what was brought up to us, was the way in which the elderly librarian
character got seen. It seems he has been portrayed as being a paedophile character
towards all the female characters, mostly, towards the youngsters. This was not the
intention I and Josh was going for. It was only a case of us telling the actor to look wowed
by seeing all these young women around him from the effect of Lynx. The fear of this
advertisement being labelled as bad advertising is possible, however that is not what
we aim for. Reassuring people that old people dont just apply Lynx only to get all the
ladies, but to have a surreal, humorous, generic Lynx advert. Recasting in regards to the
females, is certainly something a consideration for next time.

Other feedback from the advert were more focused on the atheistic qualities. They said
to mainly tone down the colour correction, so that it is less bright on the eyes. However,
realistically having looked back on the advert a few times, I do get the impression it is
almost too bright. Almost like the exposure has been whacked up to its maximum. We
intended on going for a cinematic look to the advert. If I had to re edit, I would tone down
the RGB Curves, so that it looks less bright, or even have no colour correction because
when I did have no colour correction it gave a clean look. The shot where the books gets
pulled out from the shelves is an example, where I wish I could go back and edit again.
With that I would too like to slow it down only slightly because they did say cut down 4
seconds of the advert. But then if I did slow this clip and others down it would most
certainly loose the realistic quality of the advert.

Self-Evaluation

Whether it being atheistic qualities or appropriateness to audience, all in which were very
beneficial, to take forward if we were to do this advert again. Though, as I look back on
my own edit, I do have some bones to pick out from my end product. One particular
example was the way I held the can when I pulled it out my pocket. The label on the can
which reads Lynx the brand was facing towards me and not towards the camera to the
audience. Basically it is upside down.
 It may be upside down and ruin a great chance to promote the product in the short
duration time we had, but to ruin it even more, the letter L in Lynx is almost impossible
to see and read, as it is somehow faded in with the dark colours of my trousers. This is
something audiences wont really pick up on. But for sure, if I had to redo this I would
surely pick up on this to making it right. Turning the can, the right way round and make
the all the lettering visible, not just excluding one letter is what I would change. Then it
can be seen more clearly and easier. By not seeing one letter, or anything like this ruins
everything.

Another thing, I wish I could go back and adjust is the shot where the bin gets kicked
over.

This shot is only going on for a spilt second, so it really isnt recognisable, but it is
something I wish to adjust. It was spotted during the screening before our final screening
that this should be addressed. It is the force in which the bin gets knocks over. You may
not notice it, but I knock it over only lightly, which ruins the chaotic visuals to the advert.
If there were time to adjust this, I would most certainly go back and knock it over more
forcefully, instead of making look like this by adjusting the speed duration in edit to be
quick and not look right.

More things I would like to reshoot, if I had the chance is to include more close ups of the
cast because I feel this could help to portray our message further. I get the sense; more
close ups would be appropriate. One close up, I would like to incorporate is one of our
elderly librarian character. There is already a close up of him already, but I feel more
close ups of his emotions and how they differ during the whole advert, mostly at the end
when all the young females gather round him. Having said this, at roughly the same time
in the advert, I feel next time I would include more close up shots of the female
characters on approach over to the elderly librarian character, again to gain a further
understanding of their emotions towards the character.

Overall Strengths

Listed above, were some of the weaknesses I picked out, but as for the overall strengths
of the whole advert, I am happy for the outlook of the end product. I put this down to
starting early and gaining constructive feedback each week, to take away and make the
end advert a better product. We may have misled our target audience with some of the
messages we brought across, but the overall message as one turned out to be a
successful one. As an audience watching my advert, I get a sense of something I enjoyed
to watch. I put this down to the following factors: fitting soundtrack and quick editing to
match the pace of the song. Colour correction was a slight issue, because it all began
with struggling to decide what kind of feel we wanted for our advert. I didnt want to use
the same colour correction, as I did for my music video because then I would be showing
a lack of skills. So then I experimented with the greens for the cinematic look, but it all
ended up being too bright. Other than that I am happy with the whole advert. I should
think, I am comfortable with how adverts are constructed; especially with Lynx as the
product because we undertook this unit last year on level 2 media.

Fitness For Purpose

For certain, I feel the advert hits its fitness for purpose. This gets achieved from the
original plans. The intention of having, once you apply on Lynx deodorant it makes the
men who spray it on, attracted to all the girls. For sure you get a sense that this
particular message gets portrayed for the whole advert. The purpose being; Lynx makes
you attractive to the opposite sex. Again portrayed all throughout. In our last shot, we
have included a positioning line reading feel the attraction. We were successful in
getting this message across from both the effectiveness of techniques and content.

During the time we were producing this advert, we were to follow certain advertisement
regulations. These were found on the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) website. Our
idea was seen as being unique, but very generic like most other Lynx adverts. There was
more feedback coming from the target audience, which was positive feedback because
we were quoted in having a enjoyable advert that now makes me want to buy this
product.

However, the issues that may be seen as a problem is with the way the elderly librarian
character acts towards the young female characters. We most certainly have the possible
issue of providing the incorrect message to audiences, because it is surreal that an
elderly character especially or anybody who sprays on Lynx and they instantly pull in all
these women. If with an elderly character, it could be seen as him being a paedophile
towards these young girls.

Clarity Of Communication

I feel the clarity of communication has been achieved pretty successfully. In every
message our advert entailed, everybody in the screening said they were clearly
portrayed, more so than not. The not so clear message was when there were not so clear
emotions from the two female librarian characters once the Lynx was sprayed. It didnt
seem they were attracted, to make it a realistic like Lynx advert.

Appropriateness to Audience

Our target audience is male teenagers and young males because after reviewing our
survey we found out, it is this group of people that tend to use Lynx deodorant more
frequently. To meet our target audience, it was important to ensure planning for the
whole advert was right. This was achieved through the selection of young adults (college
based) contrasting with older adults. Humour of disapproved/rebellion. We had every
understanding to knowing who are target audience is; young males.

Comparison To Our Original Idea

Our original idea very nearly corresponds to how our end advert turned out, as we're
unable to film in the care home. So we have decided to set the advert in college, more
specifically the LRC.

Instead of the main character being the same age as the target audience we wanted to
have an elderly man as the main character. The advert will be set in a care home with
lots of elderly people. The elderly man sprays on a can of Lynx. He then walks down the
corridor. Women stop and stare at him and then decide to follow him. Both the elderly
women and the care workers follow him down the corridor. We then want the character
to roar like a wild cat which fits the name of the product. The advert then ends with a
close up of the Lynx can with the slogan. We decided to come up with a slogan. The
slogan is 'Release your inner animal'. The slogan is just a concept so we may not even
use the slogan. Also in the care home advert we are going to include a variety of women.
We are first going to include elderly women following the man. Then care home workers
are going to follow him down the corridor. And then finally we are going to include an
attractive women that the target audience would find attractive. This would appeal to
the target audience as they are more likely to find the girl attractive. If we only used
elderly women and care workers in the advert, the target audience will think Lynx only
attracts older women. This may put them off buying the product.

Technical Qualities

Straight away, I and Josh have high technical qualities because we know how to function
camera equipment. This will allow us to perform some good shot types and angles. All
resulting in an advert which is both effective and enjoyable to watch. We know capturing
some mid shots or close ups will both provide the emotions characters give and help pull
through our messages. Using and performing certain tools in editing software, was as
well a technical quality. Applying transitions and setting key frames are examples etc. I
felt everything flowed smoothly, but in our last screening someone did say it could have
been a bit smoother. Looking back on this, it is a few clips that needed that minor bit of
adjusting. For example, the close up of one of the young male characters pulling a
reaction when he gets hit with a scrunched up paper ball. I did experiment with the
different video formats, before exporting but none would solve the issue, so I left it as a
Quick Time Conversion.

Aesthetic Qualities

With the end advert being something I am proud off, I didnt think it was that
aesthetically pleasing. I blame this on the colour correction. The same colour correction
goes on all throughout. Some clips brighter than others. Colour correction is something
that I feel could possibly engage an audience. We tried to show off a cinematic look.
However, it didnt affect getting the message across thankfully. At the end of the advert,
it reads feel the attraction. This is our positioning line. I have gone to go with a Hobo
Black 75. A typography that matches the lettering of the Lynx logo, enabling me to then
go to the 'colour picker' tool and focused on finding a nice, light grey kind of colour.
Almost silver like. Once this was found I would apply it to the outer strokes of the slogan
at the end of the advert. This gave a metallic kind of feel. Whereas, with the fill type all I
did was applying black in colour picker. I feel I have timed this positioning line to have a
long enough duration time at the end, so it gives the audience plenty of time to read and
digest the text.

Effectiveness of Techniques
We say the technique we were trying to imply through our edit is a cinematic one. Seen
from the short/sharp images to portray our message. I certainly feel, this will engage
audiences rightly. But then again if our advert had been e.g emotional it would have still
engaged in audiences. I think if the advert had been constructed this way, we may have
boosted the product sales, or even making this certain production a one many will
instantly remember, without having to think too long.

Effectiveness of Content

The content we showed both I felt had a sense of being both a very generic advert to
other previous Lynx adverts and as well pleasing to view. We chose to incorporate the
idea of a classic style of Lynx advert but with a twist. Alternatively, of a main character
being the same age as the target audience we liked to imply in an elderly man as the
main character. This is a project, that I and Josh can sure look back on with happy
thoughts. I sit here writing this evaluation happy for what the end product has turned out
to be.